Imagine you move into a new house only to discover that the ceilings are only 5 feet high, forcing you to walk around hunched over. You would be outraged, uncomfortable, and unable to use your home to its full potential. Well, there is a real danger that our state's newly elected legislators may find a similarly restrictive ceiling when they arrive in Austin in January.

I'm referring to an artificial "ceiling" that limits the amount Texas lawmakers can invest in things like education, health care and transportation. A small group of state leaders - the Legislative Budget Board - will meet Monday to set a limit on how much larger the next state budget can be than it is now.

The Texas Constitution has required a spending growth limit for decades, and we can all agree that the state should be prudent with its use of our tax dollars. But only recently has the spending cap become an ideological football, with some hard-line conservatives trying to set an artificially low limit that starves school districts and stifles innovation. There is already a backstop to prevent the state from spending too much; the official comptroller's revenue estimate dictates how much the state has to invest, and the budget does not exceed that. The spending-growth limit is more arbitrary.

The way this is supposed to work is that state leaders look at the economic forecasts for Texas and then set a realistic limit that still allows the investments - such as education and roads - the state needs. When lawmakers gather in Austin in January for the next legislation session, they will find a state that is growing and likely generating significant revenue. But they will also find a state with the highest rate of uninsured residents (25 percent) and that ranks 48th in investment per public school student. These are challenges that Texas can start to overcome with real leadership and realistic investments, but not if ideology gets in the way.

Drastic cuts to the state budget in the past have had real consequences on Texas' ability to compete and succeed, and artificial limits on investments will only make it harder to dig out of the hole we're in. The Legislature slashed over $5 billion from public schools in 2011 as the 2013-14 school year began, with 1,370 fewer teachers and educational aides working in Texas than in 2010-11 - despite 218,300 more students in the system. Math test scores on the National Assessment of Educational Progress have started to slip, and legislators will need flexibility to make investments to counter this trend.

Our state's founders believed the government had an important role in educating Texans - that's why the state Constitution guarantees the right to education. Those pushing for an artificially low spending limit are advocating proposals that would threaten our public school system.

In a strange way, all the attention on the artificial limit on investments in Texas makes the state budget less transparent and encourages budget gimmicks. Without this arbitrary limit, legislators would evaluate the state's needs and then develop a budget in the public domain to meet those needs. But when an artificial spending limit becomes a political litmus test, then legislators go through political gymnastics to avoid exceeding the spending limit.

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Let's return to that new house of yours, the one with the low ceilings. Before you bought that house, you made an investment decision based on the money you had saved up, your family's needs, maybe a new job and future plans. To do their job well, Texas legislators will need to make similar assessments when they arrive in January. They should not be forced to make arbitrary investment decisions. Rather, they should have the freedom to evaluate the state's needs. Then they can stand tall to make the investments we need for the future of Texas.